Grant Kirkhope
Grant Kirkhope (born 10 July 1962) is a British video game composer who used to work at Rare. He composed the world music and Final Beeting for the Yooka-Laylee ''soundtrack, alongside David Wise and Steve Burke. In ''Yooka-Laylee, Grant also voiced the Pagie, Crazy Kirkhope from the Waterworks in Hivory Towers. In The Impossible Lair, Grant composed the Royal Stingdom's theme. Early Life/Education Grant Kirkhope was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the age of 5, Kirkhope moved to Knaresborough, Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. During his youth, Grant Kirkhope attended King James's School.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Kirkhope He then attended The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, majoring in Trumpet. He obtained the qualifications G.R.N.C.M and P.P.R.N.C.M.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0456622/bio Grant Kirkhope then joined various bands including the Zoots and the Roots, alongside with the saxophonist Snake Davis, and he played in bands ranging from rock to soul/funk. He also played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played guitar. Grant Kirkhope eventually wanted to get a "proper" job, and one of his friends, Robin Beanland, recommended Kirkhope to work at Rareware as a composer. Robin Beanland recommended Grant Kirkhope to buy an Atari ST, a Steinburg Cubase, and a synthesizer. He wrote five tunes (one of which being the theme of Creepy Castle from Donkey Kong 64), and sent them to Rare over a course of a year, and was eventually hired on October 15th, 1995.https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/787714012800688128 Career Grant Kirkhope was first assigned to convert music from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest to Donkey Kong Land 2. ''Graeme Norgate, another Rare composer, asked Grant Kirkhope to finish composing music for ''GoldenEye 007, so then Norgate could work on focus on Blast Corps. Norgate taught Kirkhope get music into the Nintendo 64. Eventually, he was reassigned to compose music Project Dream with David Wise, who left the project shortly to work on Diddy Kong Racing. Eventually, Project Dream was revamped in Banjo-Kazooie. On July 14, 2008, Kirkhope stated in his MySpace blog, that he was going to resign from Rare, Ltd to become a freelancer composer. In August 2012, Kirkhope moved down to Los Angeles in order to further pursue his music career. On March 25th, 2013, Kirkhope appeared as a guest on the Youtube gaming channel, Game Grumps, and his popularity spiked as a result. In June 2013, Kirkhope signed to Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, Inc. On February 16th, 2015, Playtonic Games released two videos on their Youtube channel. The first video shows someone putting in three pieces of paper into Playtonic's Omnipotent Options Processor (Or better known as POOP.) The first piece of paper read "Kirkhope?" The second read "Wise?", and the third one read "Burke?"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iqHK5qTioY The second video had P.O.O.P release a piece of paper out of its mouth that said "cannot compute single solution. choose all three."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qoiowzfKc Grant Kirkhope composed music for Yooka-Laylee with Playtonic Games, alongside with David Wise, and Steve Burke. Notable Works * Killer Instinct 2 (1996) - Live Guitar and Trumpet * Donkey Kong Land 2 (1996) - Conversion of David Wise's Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest ''soundtrack. * ''GoldenEye 007 (1997) - Composer w/ Graeme Norgate * Diddy Kong Racing (1997) - Voice Actor (voiced Tiptup) * Project Dream (Canceled) - Composer, revamped into Banjo-Kazooie. * Banjo-Kazooie (1998) - Composer, Voice Actor (voiced Mumbo Jumbo, Jinjos, Gruntlings, Pots in 'Mad Monster Mansion') * Donkey Kong 64 (1999) - Composer, Voice Actor (voiced Donkey Kong) * Perfect Dark (2000) - Composer * Banjo-Tooie (2000) - Composer, Voice Actor (voiced Mumbo Jumbo, Jinjos, King Kingaling, Jamjars) * Star Fox Adventures (2002) - Live guitar * Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003) - Voice Actor (Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (2003) - Voice Actor (Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Grabbed by the Ghoulies (2003) - Composer, Voice * Mario Golf: Advance Tour (2004) - Voice Actor (Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Mario vs. Donkey Kong (2004) - Voice Actor (Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (2006) - Voice Actor (voiced Donkey Kong, Mini Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Viva Piñata (2006) - Composer w/ Steve Burke * Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (2008) - Composer w/ Robin Beanland and David Clynick. Voice Actor (voiced Mumbo Jumbo, Jinjo, Sergeant Jamjars) * Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (2008) - Composer * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (2009) - Voice Actor (voiced Donkey Kong, Mini Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (2010) - Voice Actor (voiced Donkey Kong, Mini Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (2012) - Composer w/ Mark Cromer * Fart Cat! (2012) - Composer * CityVille 2 (2012) - Composer * Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (2013) - Voice Actor (Donkey Kong, Mini Donkey Kong, uncredited) * Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (2013) - Remaster of the original game, composed by Shingenori Kamiya, alongside with original compositions as well. * Puzzle Charms (2014) - Composer * Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014) - Composer * Civilization: Beyond Earth (2014) - Composer w/ Geoff Knorr, Michael Curran, and Griffin Cohen. * The Enchanted Cave 2 (2014) - Composer * Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide (2015) - Composer w/ Geoff Knorr, and Griffin Cohen. * Ghostbusters (2016) - Composer * Yooka-Laylee (2017) - Composer w/ David Wise and Steve Burke. Voice Actor. * Mario + Rabbids kingdom battle (2017) - Composer * Hex Heroes (TBA) - Composer * A Hat in Time (TBA) - Composer w/ Pascal Micael * Lobodestroyo (TBA) - Composer w/ Cooper Goodwin * Happy Dude (TBA) - Composer, Voice Actor Song Credits ''Yooka-Laylee'' * Main Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * Shipwreck Creek -- Composition & Arrangement * Hivory Towers -- Composition & Arrangement * World 1 Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * World 2 Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * World 3 Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * World 4 Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * World 5 Theme -- Composition & Arrangement * Uphill Battle -- Composition & Arrangement * Frosty Fray -- Composition & Arrangement * World 1 Variant #1 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 1 Variant #2 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 2 Variant #1 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 2 Variant #2 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 3 Variant #1 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 3 Variant #2 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 4 Variant #1 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 4 Variant #2 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 5 Variant #1 -- Composition & Arrangement * World 5 Variant #2 -- Composition & Arrangement ''Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair'' * The Overworld -- Composition & Arrangement * The Overworld (Forest) -- Composition & Arrangement * The Overworld (Canyon) -- Composition & Arrangement * The Overworld (Beach) -- Composition & Arrangement * Overworld (The Final Zone) -- Composition & Arrangement Other Works * Viva Piñata (TV Series) (2006-2008) - Composer * We Sit. We Drink. No Guns. (Short Film) (2015) - Composer * Big Bad Bosses: Bears and Birds (2015) - Singer * Mulva Lends a Hand (Short Film) (2016) - Composer Quotes * "All those years telling people that this kind of game was wanted and being told that I was wrong ...... screw'em all!"https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/594197880434331649 * "You're never going to make it to the final battle without that then. You don't even have a chance!"https://youtu.be/t70l-9n1rCQ (Special Guest Grant Kirkhope - Guest Grumps) * "Don't forget CityVille 2 for God's sake. It's the crowning moment of my career; a crowning moment that is." (Special Guest Grant Kirkhope - Guest Grumps) Gallery Trivia * Grant Kirkhope refers to his music as a "Kirkhopian" style, or "Kirkhopian-nostalgia" which is music similar to Grant Kirkhope's old Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, and Donkey Kong 64 composition style https://twitter.com/grantkirkhope/status/407956704769220608. ** Kirkhopian music is often in the key of C major or C minor. ** The bassline often will be a root, and then a fifth below the root, and repeating. *** Alongside with this, every offbeat will often have a fifth and a third playing during the piece. **** This kind of music is generally referred to "Oom-pah," but Kirkhope calls it "Tri-tone Oom-pah." ** Kirkhopian music consists of mainly marimba. ** The style of Kirkhopian tends to use the following chords sequence often: C minor, then A flat minor, then C minor, then F sharp majorhttp://www.vgmonline.net/grantkirkhopeinterview4/. ** Kirkhopian music does not tend to use complex jazz chords. It tends to lean more towards basic major and minor chords. * Grant Kirkhope appears to have a small friendly rivalry with Steve Mayleshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WW_8_GkV1E, as shown in every E3 2016 interview that they were in. Grant Kirkhope would playfully insult Steve Mayles multiple times throughout the interview, while Steve Mayles pretends to often be bored whenever Grant Kirkhope talks. *Grant Kirkhope seems to have a rivalry with Gregg and Steve Mayles, as on Twitter Gregg constantly makes remarks on how "bad" Kirkhope's music is, and Steve usually picks fun at Kirkhope's appearance and age. *It was originally thought Kirkhope voiced Trowzer, but it turns out he was actually voiced by Dean Wilson. External Links * Official Website * Official LinkedIn * Official YouTube Channel * Official Facebook Page * Official Twitter * Official Google+ * Official Bandcamp * Official Instagram References Category:Playtonic Games Category:Developer Category:Composer Category:Voice Actor Category:Rare Veterans